Dear Friends...

It's December and the year 2002 seems to have been a really short one. I have done so much again, met so many wonderful people and shared so many nice moments this year! Thank you dear family and friends for everything!!!

I spent Christmas'01 with my family and "in-laws" in Grabs, had much fun playing games and enjoying the English-Christmas-traditions! After the all-years-birthday-party of my mother on Boxing-Day (26.12.) Markus and I drove down to Nizza for a few days by the sea, in the sun!

In February we went to Serfaus-Ladis to snowboard or ski every day and enjoy the hospitality and kindness of Austria. Soon after that we were invited to a crepe-party at friends in Rheinfelden near Basel. It was great to see them again and also spend some time with Natalie and Matt.

The highlight in March was a great Milsom-family&co-holiday in Colmar, which my parents had organized for us. Wow. It was such a nice weekend filled with lots of fun, excitement, surprises and joy!

In April we had a surprise-birthday-party organized for Ben, with all his friends in St. Gallen. After that we went to the caravan in Agno for a few bike-rides and relaxing moments in the campsite. We spent lots of nice evenings playing boules or badminton in the sand or going for long walks along the lake by night.

Because of the brilliant snow-conditions we could go snowboarding till after Easter with lots of different people in Laax, Parsenn, Austria or the Toggenburg. On June 23rd Markus and I celebrated our 10year-relationship . . . makes me realize how fast time flies . . .

In our summer-holidays we rented the tandem again - for the third time… - and drove 3/4 (anticlockwise) around the border of Switzerland: Buchs-Schaffhausen-Rheinfelden-Biel-Lausanne-Sion-Brig. . . We visited the Expo02 and had lots and lots of great experiences on our way, went to visit a few friends and had fun! As the weather was pretty lousy in the second week we decided to take the train home from Brig and put the tandem in the back of the car to drive down to Italy. We stayed at a camp by the sea and enjoyed the beautiful days in the warm sun, relaxing, swimming, playing and reading on the beach. On our way home we stopped in Agno where we stayed a few days in the caravan. One day we decided to cycle around the Lago di Lugano and needed a whole day to do it. But it was well worth it!

After the summer holidays I got 7 "new" children into my perfect class. That changed much in my job and life: lots of stress, parents talks, difficulties but also new ideas. Now the new children, the "old" class and I could get used to the situation and I really got to like teaching again!

In August my parents celebrated their 30th wedding-anniversary, a big party in our garden with lots of friends, fun and work. Good job the weather was nice!!!

Natalie and Matt gave us a voucher to travel in the first-class-Cisalpino-train to Milano. So we went there in autumn and found an extremely good value hotel. We enjoyed the days in the south, shopping, eating good pizza, drinking cappuccino and looking at all the different and interesting people.

This year there were soooo many special moments, like going to the Expo with a friend, listening to a few brilliant concerts, spending a great day with some friends in Lucerne, playing tennis once a week, riding the racing-bike more often, helping Natalie and Matthias with renovating their new old house in Wil, hiking up a few mountains nearby, getting a great mountain-bike to go on tours with Markus, rollerblading when the weather was good, having relatives and friends here from GB, reading brilliant books, talking to important friends and just being grateful for every nice day!

The year is over soon, and somehow I get the feeling I didn't have enough time to spend with everyone I wanted to. I really hope I can keep in touch with all of you and have more time for family and friends next year!

* * * A world without friends is like a garden without flowers * * *

So: keep the flowers growing and enjoy every day you are healthy, happy and alive! May all your wishes for 2003 come true!

Jennifer :-)